Prevalence, Correlates, and Time-to-Event Analysis of Female Sterilisation Failure in India: A Nationally Representative Study Using NFHS-5 Data

The study analyzed data from 189,021 women who underwent sterilization in India. The prevalence of sterilization failure was found to be 0.34 percent, representing 623 cases. The most common outcome of sterilization failure was abortion (96 percent). The Pearl Index was 2.87 failures per 100 woman-years. Sterilization failures were significantly associated with years since sterilization, age at sterilization, marital duration, parity, and place of procedure, but not with education, religion, or wealth. Failures occurred anytime from one month to over a decade after the procedure, with a higher proportion among women sterilized at mobile clinics. The quality of care, particularly at camp-based settings, appears to be a key modifiable factor.